Hump Day- Wed morning in Dumont Library

"Rider Down" Ambulance Congestion

Team Fungus Amongus

Barn Quilt Painting

We are off to a great start today. This is Mary from the road. Today we met the riding group from Sioux County (Team Fungus Amongus) at our breakfast stop in Aredaile--pop 89. They put on a great breakfast. It's 9:00 am and we have about 25 of our 60+ miles in. Sadly, we saw our first ambulance pick-up today, just before we got to Dumont. Congestion is immediately an issue in that situation and also as you come into each town when the pack slows up.

Last night we had the Mr. Pork Chop dinner with the Pork Belly crowd. The concert (just for our group) with The Elders was OUTSTANDING!!!! Irish jig music with lot of great crowd pleasers. We are making lots of new friends and we are having lots of fun. Yesterday's massages were amazing and will keep us going through the week.

Tonight is the Lance Armstrong benefit concert in Cedar Falls. Blues Travelers.

Lots of great photo ops. For the quilter friends, they paint 8x8 quilt squares to decorate their barns. Having a great time. Aching every morning, but it wears off through the day as we ride, and then aches again. Hugs to all!!! M

Tuesday's Gone...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ApuQ5x4tHM

Laurens' Hawaiian mayor and his daugher were out to greet us.

Army Brass Quintet

... and so is Monday. No information blogged from Monday as radio contact with the team was lost. It is now early Wednesday, so we will try to squeeze two days of riding in briefly. The tandem picked up speed on Tuesday (apparently clocking a stretch at 23MPH) as it was the first day of tailwinds after two days of riding against the win. They are also excited by weather which has helped out in the morning by being overcast each day to avoid warming up immediately. The duo are bunked down on a historic farm for this evening where they cashed in their one-per-week massage which is part of the event.

Monday brought a Dutch Bingo bullseye as Mother's shower for the day was taken at the home of the aunt of Chris H. from Holland who served as my rec basketball coach eons ago and whose mother was also responsible for trying to teach the younger son of tandem to play the violin. Concerts are apparently staged in the towns where the riders bunk down each night, Tuesday's offering was by an Army brass band, who are actually a subset of the Army bike team. Apparently each military branch is represented amongst the pack of riders. Food has been worth bragging about based on the reactions being reported, though I will not attempt to reconstruct the order in which the varies meals were described.

The historic bike has apparently had its first mechanical failure and repair. The rear handlebars were apparently mis-aligned (not that any steering occurs there) and in the process of straightening those, a bolt was broken on the front seat to which those handlebars attach. Fortunately, this occurred near one of the towns passed through on Tuesday so a bike shop was relatively nearby. It sounds as if the towns on the route will sometimes stage themselves for the riders, one community was given a Mayberry makeover and sported lookalikes for some of the Andy Griffith characters. In addition, I have been told to inform the reader that Tuesday included the best sight-seeing opportunity of the journey thus far, but that details will not be released until the photo evidence can be properly posted. It is sweeps-week in Iowa apparently, so you may all now dangle waiting for this revelation...

Sunday Bloody Sunday

Today's update had mention of a sore (Father's), not sure if it bled or not but it was good enough to allow my theme for headings to continue. Your faithful blogger failed to collect all the facts yesterday and my assumption that riding occurred was mistaken. Saturday was setup day as they prepared with their sag group, but no bike work began until Sunday. The mileage estimate for today was 76 miles. Apparently there was an option to extend Monday's ride to a full 100 miles, but our intrepid duo declined this option so Monday will be a similar length.

Not satisfied to rest on the laurels of her Dutch Bingo dominance, Mother has extended herself into African Bingo. They met a fellow rider today who has relocated to Iowa from Kenya in the last year. For those scoring at home, this is the same nation to which the tandem last year hauled a small IT department worth of hardware to outfit a small school. We'll grade this as a "pretty close" pending any further information that he is attending Dordt or Hope in the fall. Apparently food is plentiful all along the route (those locals who know they are along the route are embracing the profit opportunity) and it is sounding like I will need to join in a future edition of the ride to meet some of their fellow riders who turn the Ragbrai into their own rolling bar.

Anyway, the work week beckons, you stay classy Iowa.

S-A-T-U-R... D-A-Y... Night!

West Side Wheel Dip - Rock River in Rock Rapids

Pork Belly Venture's Tent City in its First Location

The parents are off and running, or pedaling as it is. It is apparently hot in Iowa and the forecast calls for only more of that, though the lack of shade which is provided by corn probably only makes it seem warmer. The ride began by dipping their tires in the Rock River. Along the way, they met a new friend who not only was from Sioux Center (that in itself is probably not unlikely) but was familiar with Grandpa Vlieger. Score Mom a B-8 for her Dutch bingo card (still world champ).

Dinner was pasta served by a local church and they are currently resting their toes and butts for tomorrow. They are tent #58 out of 100 amongst the rows of identical tents within their sag group. They are bunking down each night in a "great tent" from Cabella's (yay sponsor dollars!) and are sleeping amongst more than 700 people in the park where they have stopped for the night. Your helpful blog-updater is now retiring to his plush king-size bed, sleep tight Mom and Dad.

Ready to Roll

We are on our way to Rock Rapids, with the bike safely stowed on top of the car. It even has two seats!! Some of your heard about our seatpost problem. Last week, mine snapped off. It's a bit disconcerting to look down and see no seat!!

So, a new seat post--$95 . Being able to sit down for 500 miles--priceless!!

Wish us well--west winds and safety!!

How fast is FAST?

Sometimes 25 mph can seem like a crawl--especially when the police dept has erected one of their "this is how fast you are traveling signs" along one of your regular routes.

When we started training this spring, our average speed was around 13.5 mph. Gradually, that increased and we can usually travel above 15 mph, even 16 mph occasionally. On days when the wind was behind us on the straight-away, we have even managed 17 mph. Of course that includes some very slow uphills (6 mph) and some very fast downhills (max 35.7 mph).

So how fast is 35.7 mph? Pretty ho-hum in a car, a bit exciting on a jet ski, but SCARY FAST when you are balancing on two tires that are less than 1.25" wide. Then imagine that you are sitting on the BACK of the tandem unable to see the road ahead. Gotta love helmets!

Training miles: 976

Countdown to RAGBRAI: 5 days

Testing, testing....

As second son of the tandem, I will be serving as second updater. The first updater is much more stable and reliable and it was a good call by the creator of this blog to leave most things up to him.